Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,

I’ve been doing my own refrets, leveling, and dressing for years with very good results, typically using StewMac’s Understring Leveler and their Z-File. I can normally achieve very low action with no string buzz.

However, on my Strat with a 7.25" radius, the high E chokes when bending a whole step from around the 10th fret and up. As expected, this is due to the tight vintage radius: when bending toward the center of the fretboard, the string runs “uphill” into the higher middle area of the frets.

Before the refret, this guitar did not choke on bends. The old frets were worn and got very flat after several re-dressings, but I guess they had a slightly flatter effective radius across the G, B and high E strings. Now I can’t figure out how to recreate that subtle “flattened hill” effect on the top of the frets only (not flattening the fretboard) while keeping low action.

In the StewMac Fretwork book it says:

“The quickest fix for vintage Fenders which buzz when you bend is to relevel the existing frets until the straightedge sits flat on the top three string lines (E and B strings).”

What exactly does this mean in practice? How can I achieve this with the Understing leveler? Another option is to level the top of the frets to a compound radius (the frets are very tall and could easily loose some height between the edges without concern).